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Anna Chapman, Former Spy, Joins Putin's Party

In this Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010. photo made available Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010, Anna Chapman, left, a Russian national who was deported from the U.S. this summer for alleged spying for Russia, is seen with an unidentified security man at the farewell ceremony for a U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
AP Photo

Anna Chapman, left, a Russian national who was deported from the U.S. this summer for alleged spying for Russia, has joined the youth wing of PM Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

AP Photo

Former spy Anna Chapman signed up with the youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, and was promptly appointed to its public council, the BBC reports.

Chapman's move is a public reaffirmation of her allegiance to both Russia in general and Putin specifically, the Associated Press reports.

Chapman was exposed in the United States along with nine other so-called sleeper agents in an FBI sting operation and deported back to Russia this summer.

Rather than recede into anonymity like the other agents, Chapman has reveled in the fame, the AP reports. Since Prime Minister Putin held a reception to welcome her and the other agents back, Chapman has appeared at a Russian rocket launch and stripped to her underwear for a men's magazine, among other things.